Tuesday, November 07, 2006

DPReview Succumbs to Corruption

Phil Askey's "Digital Photography Review" (dpreview.com), one of the longest-suffering of the long-suffering sites that continue[d] to adhere to principle and abide by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), has finally been corrupted by the corruption around it, yielding to the temptation to leak along with the leakers—in this case with regard to the upcoming Nikon D40, a 6-MP "budget" DSLR, expected to be a price leader.

Not without a touch of irascibility, of course: "With four fairly well known digital photography / technology 'blogs' already reporting this news it seems ridiculous for us to ignore it," sniffed they. "Frankly we've had enough of sitting back each time 'leaks' occur and watching a camera become old news before it's even announced."

Even dpreview stopped short of publishing pictures, though—so here you go. (NDA? Nope, not us. Nikon doesn't know from TOP. On the other hand, I have no idea if these pictures are real. Caveat emptor.)

I am reminded of the recent episode of South Park - Eric Cartman, in a frenzied state of Nintendo-new-game-release-anticipatory-delerium, freezes himself in an attempt to make his seemly intermitable wait pass quickly...ahh, consumer fever at its highest pitch.

On a related note, I'm curious - do painters have a website devoted to the sniffing out of rumors about the release of the newest, bestest brush?...do sculptors lay awake at night fretting about the release, or rumors of the release, of the latest chisel?...are writers wandering aimlessly about pine-ing on about a much-anticipated spell check upgrade?...

"I'm curious - do painters have a website devoted to the sniffing out of rumors about the release of the newest, bestest brush?...do sculptors lay awake at night fretting about the release, or rumors of the release, of the latest chisel?...are writers wandering aimlessly about pine-ing on about a much-anticipated spell check upgrade?..."

Well, THIS website doesn't care so much about new camera releases. We care about pictures first, gear second. But a lot of "hobbyists" are really into the gear. It's fun, and I don't see anything wrong with it. Hell, it's just a hobby.

And I don;t know from chisels, but I can tell you that screenwriters constantly (and hotly) debate the merits of the various brands and releases of screenwriting software...

"...a lot of "hobbyists" are really into the gear. It's fun, and I don't see anything wrong with it."

I don't see anything wrong with it either, but the constant drum-beat (indeed, not here) of "new, newer, newest" gets rather tiring for me.

That said, what I do find "bad" or "wrong" (neither word conveys my exact "displeasure") about the current photographic new/newer/newest thing is loss of the notion of the "venerable/legendary" camera make/model/format around which a body of photographers and their work coalesce.

Digital camera models simply aren't around long enough to become venerable or to allow anything/one to "coalesce".

Maybe in the digital age, it will be all about the lenses. - you know, like those white IS Canon teles.

I used to read dpreview so much, I contemplated making it the start page on my web browser. From the moment I migrated to digital from film it has been a great source of info, but I find myself reading it less and less.

So many neurotic pixel peepers. I like to drool over technical details as much as the next geek, but I like to take pictures too. Sometimes its more important to get the shot than to endlessly critique bokeh and other minutiae.

"6MP? You can get a 6MP cell phone these days! Did they have a warehouse full of ca. 2005 sensors laying around or something?"

Wow...maybe I should be bummed that I just upgraded from a 6MP Canon D60 to a 6MP Pentax K100D.

Personally, I like 6MP. Will I get a 10MP K10D? More than likely. That being said, 6MP files are manageable. If you use the best glass, and best photographic techniques, it's easy to print a very nice 20x30. Newer 6MP models are quite impressive at higher ISO's.

I dunno...if I were a Nikon guy, I'd think about one of these. Then again, if they price it lower than the K110D, I might just pick one up. There's a couple Nikon lenses that I've wanted to try. This might be the body to do it with.

Seriously, how much of a leak is that? I mean, where there any buildup of expectations that this is shattering? Is there a horde of shareholders who are now holding their breaths? Are the kids suddenly shifting their attention away from the Nine-ten-d'oh Wii ? Does it even run Linux? If no to these questions, then I would say it's a snore, not much of a scoop.